Online advertising generally refers to advertising within computer networks. In this form of advertising, a potential purchaser typically direct a computing device, such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile phone or so-called “smart” phone, or any other device capable of accessing a computer network, to access or otherwise browse a public network, such as the Internet. While browsing, one or more advertising networks (or, simply, “ad networks”) provide the online advertisements (or “online ads” or, simply “ads”) to the potential purchaser's computing device. The potential purchaser may then click on or otherwise select the online advertisement to retrieve and view a website with which the customer may interact to view and/or purchase a product (e.g., an item, good and/or service) offered by the selected advertisement. Electronic advertisements may also be presented to a potential purchaser using other media, such as by presenting the advertisements commensurate with electronic mail (email), text messages, digital multimedia, Voice of the Internet (VoIP) telephony sessions and other formats.
The ad networks and the advertising agents or other customers that place the ads engage in various forms of fee structures. For example, one form of a revenue model of an ad network is referred to as Cost-Per-thousand impressions (“CPM”) in which the ad network charges advertisers a set or variable price each time an advertisement placed by that advertiser is shown to (i.e., makes an impression on) potential purchaser one thousand times. In another form of online advertising, an ad network uses a revenue model referred to as Cost-Per-Click (“CPC”) in which the ad network charges the advertiser a set or variable price each time an advertisement for that company's product is “clicked” or selected by a potential customer, regardless of whether the potential customer actually purchased the product or took some other action. In yet another form of online advertising, the ad network may utilize a revenue model referred to as Cost-Per-Action (“CPA”) in which the ad network charges the advertiser each time a potential customer clicks on the advertisement and subsequently completes an action or transaction, such as purchasing a product offered in the advertisement or signing up for more information regarding the product. Currently, CPA-based online advertising is implemented in a limited, per-website basis where a content provider has the infrastructure to work intimately with an advertising network due to the difficulty in correlating customer clicks with subsequent customer actions.
In many cases, ad networks attempt to garner information about the potential customer in order to select targeted ads and improve the likelihood of success of the ads. As one example, a network-based search engine may feed searches entered by the potential customers to an ad network, which selects and returns ads based on the subject of the entered search. The advertisements are then presented to the potential customer along side the results of the search. Thus, unlike conventional advertising where collection of data concerning customer behavior is limited (as in radio or television advertising), online advertising may facilitate more targeted advertising by way of dynamic and often real-time collection of data regarding customer behavior.
In some cases an ad network may deploy more invasive means that seek to record the potential customer's actions over time. Often this data is recorded by use of cookies inserted onto the potential customer's device. Often without the knowledge of the potential customer, the cookies are subsequently uploaded to a given search engine, website, or ad network the potential customer enters a search, browses a website, or retrieves an advertisement. The information recorded over time by way of the cookies may allow the ad network to determine the frequency with which the potential customer has entered various search terms and other metrics related to searching or browsing the public network, such as behavior regarding selection of related advertisements.
Each of the different ad networks may deploy different technologies and attempt to compile their own information concerning the behavior of the potential customer with respect to domains serviced by that ad network. That is, each ad networks may deploy its own cookies in an attempt to collect this potential customer information, and the potential customer's computing device returns the ad network's cookie when the unsuspecting potential customer encounters that ad network's domain. In this respect, a user's behavior and actions with respect the resources of a public network may be monitored by many different ad networks. As the cookies of the different ad networks are domain limited, individual ad networks may be limited in their ability to compile a comprehensive view of any given potential customer across domains. However, when viewed as a whole, the ad networks may compile significant information regarding the network users' behavior, thereby compromising user privacy.
A number of different ad networks have developed various services with which network-based media companies (so-called “publishers”) may interact to traffic, target, deliver and report on their interactive, online advertising campaigns. Each of these various ad networks may charge the advertisers different rates for each form of online advertising, e.g., CPM, CPC and CPA, and service different scopes of the public network. These different scopes may translate into different audiences. In some cases, a company or other enterprise operating a search engine may also own and operate its own ad network. In this case, the search engine provides an interface for monitoring the behavior of potential customers and utilizes this information to drive its own ad network. In this business model, search engines therefore compete with one another for ad revenue and typically exclude competing ad networks, as this detracts from their own ad revenue.
Considering these varying scopes, advertisers or advertisement agencies that place ads on behalf of their clients may be forced to contract with a number of these different ad networks and search engines to reach a wider audience. The ad agencies may attempt to select between the numerous ad networks and search engines based on its limited data and previous interactions with the ad networks. The ad agency may also consider cost and other factors when selecting these ad networks. In some cases an ad agency may be forced to contract with the ad network that captures the proportionally largest segment of the target audience regardless of cost.
Thus, although online advertising provides a number of benefits over brick and mortar or conventional forms of advertising, it currently suffers from many problems and disadvantages. For example, the rather invasive means currently employed by the ad networks may lead to compromised privacy of the network users. Moreover, from the perspective of the ad network, current techniques allow any individual ad network to compile only a fragmented view of user behavior based on that user's interaction with the ad network's domain. Further, advertising agencies or other clients placing the ads are forced with the difficult challenge of selecting between the numerous ad networks and search engines as well the various fee structures offered by the different ad networks.